{"id":69725,"date":"2024-12-05T11:00:40","date_gmt":"2024-12-05T16:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/?p=69725"},"modified":"2025-09-20T14:33:17","modified_gmt":"2025-09-20T18:33:17","slug":"the-2024-big-ten-championship-comes-down-to-oregon-and-penn-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2024\/12\/05\/the-2024-big-ten-championship-comes-down-to-oregon-and-penn-state\/","title":{"rendered":"The 2024 Big Ten Championship Comes Down to Oregon and Penn State"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fourteen+ weeks down, one to go. The Big Ten Championship is the culmination of everything the newly expanded 18-team super conference works toward. USC, UCLA, Oregon, and Washington jumped over from the dying Pac-12<\/a> and immediately made waves. The 2024 college football season has been full of conference realignment chaos and each of the Power 4 conferences has one new member in its conference championship. In the Big Ten Championship, it’s Oregon.<\/p>\n

In its first season with the traditional Midwest power, the Ducks ran the table, dispatched the bluebloods, and are a win away from the top seed. Standing in the way, however, is the often “bridesmaid, never a bride” in Penn State. Could the 11-1 Nittany Lions spoil Oregon’s first season with the Big Ten and capture its first conference title since 2016?<\/p>\n

The 2024 Big Ten Championship Comes Down to Oregon and Penn State<\/h2>\n

How We Got Here<\/h3>\n

Oregon comes into this game 12-0 whereas Penn State only dropped one. The season started off rough with narrow wins at home over Idaho (FCS) and Boise State. While the win over the 11-1 Broncos has aged like wine, there were concerns. Then, the Ducks rattled off three convincing wins over Oregon State, UCLA, and Michigan State.<\/p>\n

Then, the Ducks battled to a 31-30 win over Ohio State<\/a> in one of the games of the season. The win catalyzed the Oregon team as it outscored the next four opponents, 150-44. After a scare at Wisconsin, the Ducks easily beat its rival Washington to finish the first season with that Big Ten patch 12-0.<\/p>\n

Penn State, meanwhile, has had just as much success with just that one blemish. The Nittany Lions burst out of the gate with six straight wins. While they were tested against Bowling Green and USC, Penn State was able to get the job done. Then, Ohio State came to town and dug itself out of a 10-0 hole to take down the Nittany Lions, 20-13<\/a>.<\/p>\n

No matter, as the next two games were handled easily before a narrow win at Minnesota. Penn State finished the year with a dominant win over Maryland and earned a spot in the Big Ten Championship with the Buckeyes’ loss to Michigan.<\/p>\n

The two had seven mutual opponents. Oregon went 7-0 in those games and outscored the foes, 243-105. Penn State went 6-1 and outscored teams, 217-74.<\/p>\n

When Oregon Has the Ball<\/h3>\n

Oregon’s offense has been a well-oiled machine, led by\u00a0Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year and Quarterback of the Year<\/a>\u00a0(and potential Heisman Trophy Finalist<\/a>)\u00a0Dillon Gabriel<\/a>. Gabriel already broke the all-time career touchdowns mark and is within striking distance for passing yards, passing touchdowns, and total yards. He finished the year with the best completion percentage and most passing yards in the Big Ten.<\/p>\n

He has a duo of receivers who can take over the game, Evan Stewart<\/a> and Tez Johnson<\/a>. Behind one of the three Joe Moore Award Finalist offensive lines, Oregon is 20th in points scored (35.2 per game), 14th in passing (277.6 yards), 56th in rushing (170.9 yards), and 15th in total offense (448.5).<\/p>\n

Penn State’s defense is a different animal, completely. Led by one of, if not the best defenders in college football, Abdul Carter<\/a>, Penn State has been among the elites all year. The Nittany Lions boast the sixth-best scoring defense (14 points per game), seventh-best in passing (169.8 yards), eighth-best in rushing (97 yards), and fourth-best in total defense (266.8 yards).<\/p>\n

Penn State has faced great offenses and shut them down. When Oregon faced the statistically best defense against Ohio State, it scored 31 points and amassed nearly 500 yards of offense.<\/p>\n

Big players make big plays. The Nittany Lions have what it takes to limit the Oregon offense if Carter is able to terrorize Gabriel. The Ducks are going to get theirs, so Penn State will have to tighten up and force a few stops to give its offense a chance.<\/p>\n

Penn State cannot keep up in a track meet.<\/p>\n

When Penn State Has the Ball<\/h3>\n

Considering Penn State has approximately no wide receiver talent, its success has largely come via rushing attack. Between Kaytron Allen<\/a> and Nicholas Singleton<\/a>, it’s a “pick your poison” kind of offense. The junior duo accounted for 1,431 yards and 12 touchdowns. On any given day, either or both backs can have a day.<\/p>\n

If it’s not the rushing attack, it’s going to be Drew Allar<\/a> making sure all-everything tight end Tyler Warren<\/a> gets the ball. The Mackey Award finalist leads the team with 978 yards and six touchdowns off 81 receptions. He has 33% of the team’s receiving yards and 35% of its receptions.<\/p>\n

Oregon’s defense is just as good as Penn State’s. The Ducks finished the regular season ninth in scoring (16.2 points per game), eighth in passing defense (171.5 yards), 22nd in rushing (112.3 yards) and seventh in total defense (283.8).<\/p>\n

The unit boasts five All-Big Ten selections<\/a>. Matayo Uiagalelei<\/a>, Derrick Harmon<\/a>, and Jordan Burch<\/a> can and will make life hard for Penn State in the trenches. The Nittany Lions will need to find some success. In that measuring stick game against Ohio State, the offense managed a season-low 270 yards of offense. It’s not going to be any easier against Oregon.<\/p>\n

“Sco Ducks” vs. “We Are”<\/h3>\n

The 2024 Big Ten Championship is just the fifth time these two programs have ever matched up. Penn State leads the all-time series, 3-1. The two played three times between 1960 and 1964 with the Nittany Lions taking two of three, including the 1960 Liberty Bowl. The most recent matchup was in the 1995 Rose Bowl, culminating in a 38-20 Penn State victory resulting in an unclaimed National Title for the 12-0 squad.<\/p>\n

History is fun but it has no bearing on this game. Both Oregon and Penn State have looked incredibly dominant and quite vulnerable this year. In classic Big Ten fashion, this game is going to be won in the trenches. The Oregon offensive line matches up well against Carter and the Penn State defensive line. At the same time, the Oregon defensive line appears to match up well against the Penn State offensive line.<\/p>\n

Oregon looks like a team on a mission and Penn State is looking to squash the idea that it cannot win big games under James Franklin. Vegas considers Oregon to be a three-and-a-half-point favorite. It might be easy to take the Ducks and points in this one but Penn State can see that top-overall seed in its future.<\/p>\n

Ducks win, 27-24, in a hotly-contested back-and-forth contest. Gabriel will end up hoisting the Grange-Griffin Championship Game Most Valuable Player Trophy after another efficient performance.<\/p>\n

\"Big
Photo courtesy: Ben Lonergan\/The Register-Guard \/ USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It all comes down to this. The Big Ten Championship. Oregon vs. Penn State. The winner likely secures the top seed in the CFP.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4051,"featured_media":69743,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,2,35610],"tags":[2897,7983,9148,837,277,309],"class_list":["post-69725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bigten","category-featured","category-penn-state-nittany-lions","tag-big-ten-championship","tag-big-ten-football","tag-dan-lanning","tag-james-franklin","tag-oregon-ducks","tag-penn-state-nittany-lions"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4051"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69725"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69725\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":69752,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69725\/revisions\/69752"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}